People's Democracy

THE calculations that anti-globalisation struggle was also a casualty of the events of September 11 were proved wrong when three major events took place last week around the world. New York saw the latest in a long series of protests against the World Economic Forum, while three days of militant protest against NATO and militarisation were staged in Munich, Germany. Meanwhile on the other side of the world in Port Alegre, Brazil, the World Social Forum attracted a gathering of thousands to discuss alternative social and economic models to prove Another World Is Possible.

Tens of thousands of activists demonstrated throughout midtown Manhattan to protest the World Economic Forum on February 2.

Thousands of demonstrators joined to "meet and greet" WEF delegates who paid $25,000 to attend the gathering of the 1,000 largest transnational corporations responding to the call given by the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) coalition.

Despite the presence of thousands of armed police officers, protestors were heard clearly within the Waldorf-Astoria. Their message of an end to Bush's war at home and abroad was carried from the "streets to the suites" of executives like Bill Gates and Bush officials like Colin Powell.

"The police diverted thousands of protestors who sought to access the demonstration area by establishing checkpoints, barricades and closing surrounding streets," said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, attorney for the ANSWER coalition.

"Many people who made it through reported it took them at least an hour to navigate through the maze of obstacles set up by the police. Police told people the permit and protest were cancelled, they misdirected others, and diverted a large number of buses away," stated Verheyden-Hilliard.

The day before this demonstration, the ANSWER coalition sponsored a day-long teach-in with 500 people at the community church in Manhattan. Later that evening nearly 1,000 people packed a standing-room-only indoor rally at the Fashion Institute of Technology auditorium, to hear speakers representing a wide range of struggles affected by US military and economic domination in the world.

Thousands of protesters converged on Munich on the weekend 1-3 February, as another "Conference on Security Policy" is held in the German city. As every year, government members from all NATO states, including most defence and foreign ministers, met 200 high-ranking army officials and war experts to discuss "security" and "peace" issues. In effect this meeting was to lay out plans for future military interventions, invent new enemies, discuss costly military programmes etc. i.e. plan the next war.

A hundred groups and organisations from Munich and other parts of Germany, including socialist, peace, antifascist, autonomist and student groups, amongst many others, had called for a variety of actions to disturb the meeting and to show alternatives to a continuous militarisation of society.

On February 1 there was a huge rally in Munich and the next day a massive demonstration was held in which more than 7000 people came out on the streets of Munich protesting against NATO and war. They were violating the ban on holding of any meetings in Munich during the NATO meetings. All planned demonstrations and rallies against these meetings were declared illegal by the city council. Activist groups and NGOs challenged the ban in court, but the complaint was rejected. The police repeatedly tried to prevent these demonstrations by encircling groups of demonstrators and arbitrarily arresting some of them.

Altogether at least 400 people have been arrested, most of them (280) at a mass arrest at a place near the main train station. People had been encircled there the whole evening, then they were brought to a police station where they had to stay outside in the backyard half the (cold) night. there are also reports that arrested people had been locked up in very small cages waiting for a recognition-official handling. Activists distributed leaflets all over the city: "Resistance can not be prevented". Solidarity demonstrations took place in various cities - Kiel, Berlin, Zuerich etc.

Confrontations between demonstrators and police took place many times with the police using pepper spray and batons and some protesters responding by throwing bottles.

The administration with some liberal help from the media resorted to well-known tactic of stirring up fear of "violence" by "leftwing extremists", who allegedly want to make Munich a "second Genoa". Thereby they tried their best to justify heavy-handed police actions, a ban on protests and a criminalisation of protesters. They have effectively turned reality upside down by accusing anti-war protesters - and not the generals and army officials meeting in Munich - of "violence".

The three day meetings of World Social Forum in Porto Allegre, Brazil came to a succesful conclusion on February 3. This meeting held parallel to to the other two meetings -in New York and Munich , discussed the alternatives to their strategy of aggressive economic and military globalisation. A huge rally was held in Porto Allegre on this occasion.

The WSF was established in 2001 as a counter-WEF-summit by groups and movements of civil society including left wing parties, workers unions and NGOs that are opposed to neo-liberalism and any form of imperialism. Forum organisers define the WSF as a process and an open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of global issues, formulation of proposals, and co operation for effective action.

The meet adopted a peace conference manifesto,which was released at the conclusion of the event.

Blasting the tough post-September 11 turn in US foreign policy, the manifesto said "The United States moved to impose its will by force," and "a new cold war climate was installed in the world,"

"The United Nations definitively lost its role, the other capitalist powers and nearly all the other governments of the world delegated to the United States the role of permanent terror agents," added the document.

Nobel Peace Prize winner from 1992 Rigoberta Menchu said the United Nations had been undermined as the United States developed its war on terrorism in the wake of the attacks.